Historical documents on display

Lincoln proclamation draft, Martin Luther King Jr. letter will be in Capitol's War Room

Published 10:32 pm, Friday, February 15, 2013

ALBANY — Just in time for this weekend's annual gathering of the state Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, two documents reflecting the struggles of African-Americans are on display in the Capitol's second-floor War Room: Abraham Lincoln's Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and a marked-up copy of a 1962 speech by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., delivered in New York City at the invitation of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller to mark the centennial of the first document's release.

State Education Commissioner John King said the two documents were a reminder that the work begun by Lincoln remained undone a century later.

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The documents include such print-only treasures as Rev. King's emendations to his text. "It's a great tool to teach students about the notion of authorship, and how an author makes specific choices," Commissioner King said.

The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation has spent a good deal of time in Albany: Lincoln donated it to the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which promoted clean conditions in military camps and hospitals during the war. The commission raffled the document at an Albany Army Relief Association Fair held in Academy Park in 1864, where it was won by one of the officials who had organized the lottery, and had purchased a large block of tickets that were still for sale in the waning days of the event.

The draft was later purchased by the state Legislature. Lincoln's handwritten final Emancipation Proclamation burned in the Chicago fire in 1871; the draft survived the New York Capitol fire of 1911 and has remained in the State Library.

The documents will remain on display only through Saturday, when the building is closed to the general public.